Who would you go for?

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

Pearson has managed us before. He was shite then he'd be shite now.

[buzza]

I can't see anyone bar an out of work desperate manager coming to us in January. Moyes would perhaps be the only experienced manager who could perhaps merit even being the replacement for McClaren.

My main gripe with McClaren and his backroom is the fact they can't seem to motivate the players, wouldn't mind the dross so much or the relegation possibility if the players were giving 100%, if it was down to "they are a set of average plodders" then I wouldn't mind, but you look at the team sheet and the potential of them merits a mid table position.

[mosstef]

Coloccini as player/manager. He is the perfect leader 

[Impossibly Daft]

I wonder which one of Charnley`s football `advisors` is whispering Nigel Pearson to his soppy little mug

 

s*** like this f***ing terrifies me man

 

 

Why? He's won all three relegation battles in his career, rebuilt a complete mess at Leicester very successfully twice with fairly limited funds along with laying the groundwork for that Hull team that came up the other year, won promotion, has a reputation for building teams with excellent team spirit and character and has a team (assuming they could be talked into leaving Leicester) whose record on transfers is superb. A little conservative with subs and has had a couple of slightly iffy runs but no more than anyone else. His relationships with the media are about as healthy as Joe Kinnear's, but in terms of getting the job done there's far worse out there.

 

Doubt there'd be much chance though as it would probably cost too much to bring in Shakespeare and Walsh, and it would mean signing a wider range of bargain basement players.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

I like Pearson, and he's done some good things in his short career to date, but he would never work for Ashley and I personally wouldn't want him here anyway. He would be akin to Souness to this group of players and they couldn't handle it. In short it wouldn't work. The players and fans need inspired not intimidated and worked hard.

[Guest The Little Waster]

It doesnt matter who manages us ...the transfer policy remains and the fact hunt remains ...until fatty leaves its pointless getting fixated on who might replace Mclaren , or which players we might sign ...the sooner we are relegated the better ....

[joeyt]

I like Pearson, and he's done some good things in his short career to date, but he would never work for Ashley and I personally wouldn't want him here anyway. He would be akin to Souness to this group of players and they couldn't handle it. In short it wouldn't work. The players and fans need inspired not intimidated and worked hard.

 

He already has

[The College Dropout]

It doesn't matter. We wont sign enough of the quality that we need. Just like this summer..

[Guest Howaythetoon]

I like Pearson, and he's done some good things in his short career to date, but he would never work for Ashley and I personally wouldn't want him here anyway. He would be akin to Souness to this group of players and they couldn't handle it. In short it wouldn't work. The players and fans need inspired not intimidated and worked hard.

 

He already has

 

Signed under FS

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

Has to be a personality, someone who is well respected in the game and achieved a lot as a player.

 

Can't see any of our lot being arsed in the slightest if we brought in someone like Rodgers.

[joeyt]

I like Pearson, and he's done some good things in his short career to date, but he would never work for Ashley and I personally wouldn't want him here anyway. He would be akin to Souness to this group of players and they couldn't handle it. In short it wouldn't work. The players and fans need inspired not intimidated and worked hard.

 

He already has

 

Signed under FS

 

That's not what you said though

[Wallace]

I like Pearson, and he's done some good things in his short career to date, but he would never work for Ashley and I personally wouldn't want him here anyway. He would be akin to Souness to this group of players and they couldn't handle it. In short it wouldn't work. The players and fans need inspired not intimidated and worked hard.

 

He already has

 

Signed under FS

 

That's not what you said though

 

I am sure I heard that Pearson was the one who leaked stuff to the media when Keegan came back regarding stories of poor tactics and Keegan being out of touch.  Absolutely no idea where I got that from though so maybe I dreamt it!!!  It just always comes to mind whenever I see him being interviewed and being very antagonistic towards the press.

 

 

[Guest H09]

Graham Carr should takeover, they're his players.

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

Graham Carr implements a recruitment policy with strict parameters. Whoever establishes Graham Carrs remit should be put in charge.

[KaKa]

Can't believe Pearson is being discussed as an option. So depressing.

[Wallsendmag]

Graham Carr implements a recruitment policy with strict parameters. Whoever establishes Graham Carrs remit should be put in charge.

 

Carr simply does as he's told which is to buy young, Foreign players for as little an outlay as possible, from smaller leagues who will then in turn make the club a tidy profit 2-3 years down the line. You simply can't run a football club in this way when this is your only transfer strategy. It's just not flexible at all and has left us in a position where we have a young squad, devoid of any leadership which regularly goes on ridiculous losing runs because there's no figurehead(s) in the dressing room to get the players back on track. You can see it on the pitch. We go a goal down, heads drop and there's not a single player on that pitch who is capable of getting a reaction from his teammates and taking the game by the scruff of the neck.

 

The fundamental problem is that NUFC is not run like a football club and decisions are not made for footballing reasons. It's always going to be a recipe for disaster.

 

 

[Guest chopey]

Any manager that agrees to work under a bloke that picks the players for him has no right to complain when it goes tits up and any manager that agrees to work under these circumstance's is 100% the wrong bloke for the job.

[LucaAltieri]

Graham Carr implements a recruitment policy with strict parameters. Whoever establishes Graham Carrs remit should be put in charge.

 

Carr simply does as he's told which is to buy young, Foreign players for as little an outlay as possible, from smaller leagues who will then in turn make the club a tidy profit 2-3 years down the line. You simply can't run a football club in this way when this is your only transfer strategy. It's just not flexible at all and has left us in a position where we have a young squad, devoid of any leadership which regularly goes on ridiculous losing runs because there's no figurehead(s) in the dressing room to get the players back on track. You can see it on the pitch. We go a goal down, heads drop and there's not a single player on that pitch who is capable of getting a reaction from his teammates and taking the game by the scruff of the neck.

 

The fundamental problem is that NUFC is not run like a football club and decisions are not made for footballing reasons. It's always going to be a recipe for disaster.

 

You're right on a number of things. Our squad does seem to lack a leader figure and that affects the squad psychology negatively. It's a failing of our recruitment policy, as that's a key factor when looking to bring in players. Every model for player evaluation includes a player's mental attributes as a fundamental pillar. Either our scouting team is shit at assessing this aspect of a player or the people making the signings aren't paying enough attention to that area. That's one problem.

 

The recruitment policy relying on cheap players from foreign leagues and unproven kids obviously isn't going to be as successful as blowing wads of cash on proven signings. But there is merit to the approach when it's done right. Going two windows barely signing anyone, lacking cover in essential positions, and missing out on targets because of haggling over the odd million or few hundred thousand here and there - that's not what I'd consider "doing it right" but it's not my money. If that's the approach they want to take then there's not much anyone can do about it... but they really need to be investing in other areas to develop the cheap players they bring in.

 

There's definitely some quality among the players that we have. We just haven't managed to form it into a cohesive team. Partly due to lack of investment in certain areas, partly due to the psychological aspect you mentioned. However, all of this comes back to the same fundamental problem; the team lacks a footballing vision.

 

The most successful teams when it comes to buying cheap, developing talent, and promoting from the youth ranks all have a footballing philosophy that runs throughout the club. Players can come and go, managers can get replaced, and the club philosophy remains. The philosophy informs the scouting policy, the recruitment selection, how the youth teams are organised, and allows for interactions between all parts of the club to be cohesive and all-encompassing. It allows them to build team after team.

 

We don't have that. We don't have a philosophy and we can't get one because we're not being run, at an operational level, by football people. We need someone who knows football - preferably good football - informing every part of the club. It doesn't matter who the manager is until we get that. If the business team, scouting team, youth team, and first team aren't all on the same page then we're going to continue having these problems.

 

If we hadn't burned the KK bridge, he'd have been an ideal candidate for a Director of Football-type role to advise on this stuff (ok, maybe not the youth development - but the rest of it). Until we have someone like that in place the manager is basically irrelevant.

[Kaizero]

Graham Carr implements a recruitment policy with strict parameters. Whoever establishes Graham Carrs remit should be put in charge.

 

Carr simply does as he's told which is to buy young, Foreign players for as little an outlay as possible, from smaller leagues who will then in turn make the club a tidy profit 2-3 years down the line. You simply can't run a football club in this way when this is your only transfer strategy. It's just not flexible at all and has left us in a position where we have a young squad, devoid of any leadership which regularly goes on ridiculous losing runs because there's no figurehead(s) in the dressing room to get the players back on track. You can see it on the pitch. We go a goal down, heads drop and there's not a single player on that pitch who is capable of getting a reaction from his teammates and taking the game by the scruff of the neck.

 

The fundamental problem is that NUFC is not run like a football club and decisions are not made for footballing reasons. It's always going to be a recipe for disaster.

 

You're right on a number of things. Our squad does seem to lack a leader figure and that affects the squad psychology negatively. It's a failing of our recruitment policy, as that's a key factor when looking to bring in players. Every model for player evaluation includes a player's mental attributes as a fundamental pillar. Either our scouting team is shit at assessing this aspect of a player or the people making the signings aren't paying enough attention to that area. That's one problem.

 

The recruitment policy relying on cheap players from foreign leagues and unproven kids obviously isn't going to be as successful as blowing wads of cash on proven signings. But there is merit to the approach when it's done right. Going two windows barely signing anyone, lacking cover in essential positions, and missing out on targets because of haggling over the odd million or few hundred thousand here and there - that's not what I'd consider "doing it right" but it's not my money. If that's the approach they want to take then there's not much anyone can do about it... but they really need to be investing in other areas to develop the cheap players they bring in.

 

There's definitely some quality among the players that we have. We just haven't managed to form it into a cohesive team. Partly due to lack of investment in certain areas, partly due to the psychological aspect you mentioned. However, all of this comes back to the same fundamental problem; the team lacks a footballing vision.

 

The most successful teams when it comes to buying cheap, developing talent, and promoting from the youth ranks all have a footballing philosophy that runs throughout the club. Players can come and go, managers can get replaced, and the club philosophy remains. The philosophy informs the scouting policy, the recruitment selection, how the youth teams are organised, and allows for interactions between all parts of the club to be cohesive and all-encompassing. It allows them to build team after team.

 

We don't have that. We don't have a philosophy and we can't get one because we're not being run, at an operational level, by football people. We need someone who knows football - preferably good football - informing every part of the club. It doesn't matter who the manager is until we get that. If the business team, scouting team, youth team, and first team aren't all on the same page then we're going to continue having these problems.

 

If we hadn't burned the KK bridge, he'd have been an ideal candidate for a Director of Football-type role to advise on this stuff (ok, maybe not the youth development - but the rest of it). Until we have someone like that in place the manager is basically irrelevant.

 

[Disco]

Good post Luca, worth mentioning we have also eschewed leaders at every level too. Every single one we've potentially had has been pushed out the door because Ashley or whoever has seen them as a threat.

[Interpolic]

Good post Luca, worth mentioning we have also eschewed leaders at every level too. Every single one we've potentially had has been pushed out the door because Ashley or whoever has seen them as a threat.

Such a fantastic point that, those who won't stand for losing most of the time playing shit football have been systematically forced out.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

From what I've heard if we value a player at 5m, we won't go over 5.2m for him in negotiations for example. Same with wages when it comes to agents as well. Carr has done some great background work regarding recruits and we could have had all kinds of players if we paid just a bit more, but we won't and don't. We were probably hoping we could save a few quid on Austin for example if we bought him six months later, or 12 if QPR failed to go up. Its penny pinching in the extreme and the equivalent of cutting off our nose to spite our face. Such stupidity needs punished and I for one hope that happens in the form of relegation and that we lose all those players for pennies.

[Disco]

Wrong thread but if Austin has more than 1 offer from us in Jan he'd be a fucking lunatic to move here.

[Interpolic]

The weird thing is that they did actually pay the going rate this time, there were no tedious transfer sagas. Still we're left with a vastly unbalanced squad due to a chronic aversion to players that we will not necessarily profit on.

[lovejoy]

Moyes would be ideal tbh, appointing him would signal the end of the recruitment policy as well.